You Can Work at Starbucks to Pay for Fertility Treatments
One of the most commonly asked questions in my fertility support group is in regards to affording/paying for in vitro fertilization (IVF). I think everyone and their moms know that paying for IVF is NOT cheap and will run at the very least $10,000, with the national average being $12,000 per treatment. People are also always asking if it’s worth it to take a pay cut for a job that provides better fertility insurance benefits. And, something I kept seeing come up time and time again in response to questions like these was:
Get a part-time job at Starbucks.
If this is your first time learning this, which I’m willing to bet it probably is if you’re reading this, I was also as shocked as you were! Sounds too good to be true, right? Wrong!!!
At Starbucks, all full and part-time employees are eligible for the following under their Family Expansion Reimbursement program:
$25,000 Benefit for Fertility Services (Upped from $15,000) (Note that this is a part of regular medical insurance)
$5,000 Benefit for Prescription Drugs (Upped from $5,000) (Again, this is included as a part of regular medical insurance)
Up to $10,000 Reimbursement for Surrogacy, Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), and adoption, with a lifetime maximum of $30,000
WHAT.
Obviously, there are some stipulations to gaining access to this. Part-time workers must work a minimum, 20 hours per week, in order to qualify for the aforementioned benefits. In addition, you have to work at Starbucks for six months before these fertility insurance benefits kick in. There may be more, but I’m not an employee of Starbucks, and this was all I could find.
Heather Marcoux, who wrote an article titled I got a job at Starbucks for the IVF benefits. I take home $0 but have the top benefits package says, “… for the first few months I received the standard wage, but as of January I no longer have any take-home pay because I chose the top benefits package that’s allowing me to move forward with my dream of starting a family.” She then goes on to say, “I believe the regular, nonwealthy Americans should not be excluded from conceiving simply because we don’t have $30,000 in the bank.”
